When It's Time To Party We Will Always Party Hard
by nubianamy
Summary: Ryder feels left out when Jake and Marley get a room at Mr. Schue's wedding reception - until Finn invites him to the party. Twelvesome, plus Jake/Marley/Ryder. Cowritten with gala apples.
1. Ryder

_(Authors' note: This is a response to episode 4x14, I Do, in which Will and Emma attempt to get married and end up having a weird sort of party instead. We thought the hotel room situation was far too sad and depressing for a group like Glee, in which there's so much love for one another, so we wrote something that fits our kink-set a little better. All 4x14 canon is followed, we just wrote around the edges. This is a very clear warning for a twelvesome - yes, you read that right - and actual pairings/groupings include:_

_Jake/Marley  
__Jake/Marley/Ryder  
__Jake/Ryder  
__Mike/Blaine  
__Puck/Sam  
__Tina/Mercedes  
__Tina/Mercedes/Ryder  
__Quinn/Santana  
__Kurt/Blaine  
__Finn/Rachel  
__Finn/Rachel/Kurt  
__Artie/Brittany  
__Finn/Brittany_

_Specific warnings for orgy, __light dom/sub, __spanking, __shaving, __blowjobs, __ice kink, __making out, __frottage and __poly negotiations - and rather a lot of humor. Enjoy! -gala and amy)_

* * *

**One: Ryder**

Ryder wishes that the hotel was a little lower class. It isn't that he thinks Mr Schuester and Ms Pilsbury should get married in a dive. Frankly, he'd been sort of surprised that she had agreed to have it at a hotel at all, considering that 20/20 exclusive he saw with the black light wand. It's just that at this five star place everything's white. The top half of the walls are painted white, the bottom wainscotting is white, the floor tile is grey with a white runner down the middle. Ryder's been in normal middle class hotels before, at least one Red Roof Inn and Sheraton each summer. When you have three children - two beautiful brilliant girls you want to spoil, and a moderately stupid boy you feel guilty about not protecting - you end up taking them on a lot of vacations. What they all had in common was this fantastic, hideous floral carpet. Burgundy background, teal and hunter green and mustard coloured vines running the length of the hall, the occasional red rose. He'd really like something bright to look at. Maybe if there was something to look at he'd feel like less of a creeper concentrating entirely on what he can't hear through the door.

Because, really, that's exactly what he is doing. Ryder spent the last forty-five minutes watching lovesick Jake woo lovesick Marley with _his_ words, _his_ gifts, _his _moves, and all he can feel now is a little left behind. It's not that he's _not_ jealous; it's rather that his jealousy is so much less about himself getting the girl and so much more about other complicated things.

His actions are only not-creepy if he's genuinely concerned about Jake's 'love nitrous', and him pushing Marley into sex. And if that's the case, than he should be breaking down the door with his shoulder because no one deserves that. But if Ryder's being honest with himself, that's not what this is about. For all the stupid big-talk, Ryder is positive Jake would stop at the first no.

No, he's really just hovering outside their room because he'd rather be inside their room. And how fucking sad is that? Almost as bad as the pile of small gifts in his locker that he bought for Jake for Valentine's week while he was collecting all the things he gave to Jake to give to Marley, probably. Worse, maybe. At least Ryder was smart enough to not actually give that mix cd to Jake yesterday. What, exactly, does he think is going to happen here? That they're going to open the door and welcome him in? Jake doesn't even know he's bi, for fucksakes.

For the fifth time he starts to walk away. Ryder gets as far as two steps from the door, still close enough to put his hand on the handle, before he stops. He growls at his own stupidity, but can't do anything better. He can't walk away, he can't knock on the door. He's just stuck, like a giant, stupid-

"Do you know where the ice machine is?"

Finn's slightly confused voice breaks him out of his negative spiral. Ryder turns to look at his sorta-teacher as the door thunks closed behind him. Finn holds up the white plastic container.

"Dunno, man. Sorry."

Finn cranes his neck to look around the corner. "I guess I could go to the reception desk and ask, but it seems like it would take a long time."

"Probably shorter than wandering around all the floors? Busy, huh." Ryder gives Finn an obligatory smirk, even though he doesn't really feel like teasing him at the moment. "You and Rachel get a room?"

Finn pauses, looking back at the room, and then turns back to him, considering. Then he shrugs. "Actually, we all got a room."

That doesn't surprise Ryder much. Yeah, he's mostly been focused on Jake and Marley, but Kurt and Blaine weren't exactly subtle, with the whole third base in the parking lot thing, and Santana and the blond - Quinn, he thinks her name was - got progressively more handsy, and why wouldn't Sam and Brittany take advantage of having a night together? This entire hallway is probably full of Glee couples. He drives his grin up a notch. "Tomorrow morning's walk of shame should be amusing. They're going to make a fortune off us."

Finn's expression is odd. "Not really. What're you doing out here?"

"It's kind of... a long story."

"Well, you can walk with me while I hunt for the ice machine." He beckons Ryder to follow, and Ryder casts one last hopeless look at Marley and Jake's door before trotting along behind. Finn's long strides take him down the hall toward the EXIT sign at the end. "Something about Marley?"

"Uh, yeah." He isn't exactly prepared to tell Finn the whole story, but somehow when he opens his mouth, what comes out is, "Something about both of them."

"Yeah?" Finn glances back, pausing to let Ryder catch up. He's smiling, not in a mean way or even a surprised way, but accepting this, interested to hear more. Ryder feels himself relaxing. He hadn't realized how much he needed to talk about it until that moment, and now he isn't sure he wants to censor himself. "How's that working out for you guys?"

"Working out? What do you think? Who's in the hallway?" He doesn't mean to be rude to Finn, especially considering how awesome he's being now, but the unfairness washes over him in a corpulent wave, and he's left with a bitter taste in his mouth. He crosses his arms as Finn scopes out the stairwell and returns, sans ice.

"Well, I suppose you could be giving them a little time to themselves before joining them. That'd be cool. But I guess that's not what's happening?"

Ryder wonders if Finn's pockets are stuffed with weed, because he's got to be smoking _something._ "Yeah, I'm sure that'd go over well. Marley's barely comfortable enough to date one guy, much less two, and Jake..."

Finn is watching him with clear anticipation. "Yeah? Go on. What about Jake?"

Ryder scowls. "Seems like the poster boy for straight but not narrow."

Finn's grin widens. "Kind of like me, huh?"

"Yeah. ... What?"

"Or Puck. Really, though, Puck's been having threesomes since he was crazy-young, and he never failed to tell me about them. First time one of them included two guys, that's when I made my move."

Ryder feels his jaw hanging loose, and he struggles to maintain a polite veneer of calm. "Your move. And, um, that would be..."

"Right now, looking for the ice. Because Tina has this thing about cold sensation, and I'm the guy who delivers. Well, and I'm usually the first one finished." He doesn't appear to be too embarrassed about this, though it's not the sort of thing Ryder would expect someone hold as a badge of honor; Finn is just calm and matter-of-fact. Pretty much the way he's been about this whole insane conversation, really. "But back then, my move was... including people."

"Oh." Ryder can't quite see what Finn is saying clearly. Or at least what he thinks might be going on seems so farfetched it might as well be coming from another freaking galaxy. He leans against the wall, and adds, very carefully, "I'm confused."

Finn rattles the handle on an exit door that seems to be locked, and continues on down the hall. "Maybe they expect you to go down to another floor to get ice? Weird. Well, you might not have heard all the stupid stuff that went down with Glee club when we were sophomores, but there was this whole baby scandal... anyway, Quinn and Puck and me, we figured out a compromise. And once Rachel got over her issues, it was the four of us... and then after Blaine and Kurt walked in on us one time, we -"

"Wait, just... wait." Ryder holds up a shaking hand to prevent Finn from going any further.

Finn gives him a sad smile. "Too much?"

"No... you just passed the ice machine."

His smile shifts to surprised, then pleased. "Hey, thanks."

Pausing while Finn fill his white bucket gives Ryder a moment to formulate his thoughts. "This is... I don't exactly know what it is, but it's kind of breaking my brain. Do you think we could, I don't know, go talk somewhere? Like, maybe you could convince Rachel to go back to the dance, and I can have my freakout in your room instead of the hallway?"

Finn laughs. "Don't think kicking Rachel out would help much. I wasn't kidding. Everyone's in my room right now."

_Everyone. _Ryder's mind races. "So when you said you guys have _a room_," he says slowly, "you meant..."

"One," Finn agrees. "A suite, actually, but twelve in one bed is kinda impossible. And, um..." He pauses again, looking a little embarrassed. "I haven't run this by all of them, but as far as I'm concerned you're totally welcome to join us. Just to talk, if nothing else, but... it's already pretty crowded in there. If you don't mind that, I'd be happy to listen to whatever freakout you need to have."

Ryder isn't exactly sure what to make of Finn's invitation. It feels a little like a proposition, and a little like a big-brother's-watching episode, and he's bordering on uncomfortable and fascinated and right on the edge of tears. He seriously wonders what would happen if he had his freakout in Finn's arms - and that's what convinces him to agree to follow him back to the room, more than anything, because he's not going to be caught sobbing in a hotel hallway with some guy's tongue down his throat. Not even Finn Hudson's.

It's not as intense-back-room-of-Brian-Kinney's-Babylon as he expects it to be. The door opens onto the living room, and there are two rooms to the right, both with doors propped open. A smorgasbord of last year's Glee club are there in the living room, although Ryder can spy Mercedes and Tina through one of the bedroom doorways. Joe's missing; frankly, Ryder would have fallen over with shock if he'd been there. Kurt and Blaine and Artie are missing too. An hour ago Ryder would have assumed Kurt and Blaine had their own room and Artie was with that other girl in the wheelchair, but now his mind is blown wide open. For all he knows they have a kink for bathroom sex and are still on the main floor at the reception.

But the thing is, for all that there are many bodies, almost all of them are still in some state of dress. Rachel's the only entirely naked one, which Ryder guesses makes sense when he adds in Finn's coming first comment. Some appear to be hovering on the edge of having sex, like Santana biting her way up Quinn's leg, Quinn's dress hiked up, but there's nothing more overt than that.

Nobody looks even a little upset to see Ryder, and the expressions on some of their faces border on predatory, but Finn slings an arm around his shoulder and says, "He needed someone to talk to. Give him a chance to unwind before asking anything of him, okay?"

"Ryder's like Cogsworth?" Brittany asks brightly.

"Rachel, if you burst into _any_ Beauty and the Beast song right now, there will be exactly _zero_ orgasms for you," Mercedes shouts from the bedroom.

"Whatever, 'Cedes," Rachel calls back with a superior little smile, "there are ten other people here who would love to arrange one for me." She doesn't actually burst into song, though, so it appears that that crisis is averted.

Finn steers Ryder to the back of the room, where there's a free chair beside the desk, and encourages him to have a seat. He crouches down beside him, smiling reassuringly, while Mike leans over to put a hand on Finn's thigh.

"Don't worry," Mike says to Ryder, speaking softly. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. It took me months to get past watching."

Finn gives him a lopsided smile. "Who says you have to get past that?"

The door opens and Ryder tenses. For some reason the insane image of Mr Schuester walking in and berating them pops into his head. It's a relief when it's just Kurt, dressed impeccably as always.

"You two drama free?" Puck calls out. "Because this is officially a Drama Free zone. If you look out the window to the left, you'll see scenic Rocky Mountains, and if you look to the right, you'll see Sam and Santana not freaking out at each other."

"Obviously not," says Quinn, "considering that Blaine's not with him."

But Blaine appears less than a minute later, after Finn's finished delivering the ice to Tina and Mercedes. He heads directly for Mike and crashes down beside him, not caring that his dress slacks are probably getting more wrinkled with each second. He's not the only one still wearing them, but Ryder thought he'd be more careful, like he is in Glee. Blaine leans his head against Mike's shoulder, gazing up at him through his lashes. "It's been too long, man."

Mike kisses Blaine's temple. "Damn right it has."

"Okay," Puck says. "I love all you guys, but a four hour wedding reception is enough foreplay for a lifetime. So who wants to make out with me?"

"Subtle," Santana says, head between Quinn's legs. "And - busy." Quinn's still wearing underwear, but Ryder's not sure how long that'll last. Ryder startles as there's a long drawn-out noise from the bedroom. Sam grins.

"Ice," he says knowingly. "Does it to her every time."

"C'mon, White Chocolate," Puck urges, and pats his legs. "Don't I get a lap dance?"

Sam grimaces as he gazes up at Puck, seated on the edge of the bed. "No offense, dude but you are just not hot to me with all that _fur_."

But Puck doesn't look in the least bit offended. "A, I'm hot at all times in all places with all combinations. B, I grew the fur so you could shave it off, dumbass. Along with anything else you choose."

Blaine groans as Sam dashes for the bathroom, presumably for a razor. "Don't tell him that. He's been a dick about body hair all this year."

Santana laughs. "You know the deal, Anderson. Mention a body part and you gotta pull it out."

"What do you want Blaine-dick for?" Quinn rifles her hand through Santana's hair. "I thought we were busy with our not-dicks."

"I'm just saying. Half these people are still dressed. It's our duty as members of this collective to con everyone into mentioning body parts."

"Fine. Hey Mike, what rhymes with harm?"

"Arm?" Mike shucks off his suit jacket and unbuttons his wrist buttons. It's kind of insane how Rachel's still naked and Mercedes and Tina are making out loudly in one of the bedrooms, and yet Mike slowly rolling up his sleeves is what pings Ryder as seductive. He eyes Mike's hand as it returns to his thigh, and licks his lips.

"You're doing okay," Finn says, kind of asking and kind of not.

Ryder nods. He's feeling a little dazed, but the images in his head of Marley and Jake are overlapping with the scene surrounding him. They're almost more compelling.

"Yeah," he says, clearing his throat. "Yeah. Okay."

Watching Puck take off his shirt while Sam preps the razor, Ryder can't help but notice Mike's keen focus isn't on the action. On the contrary, he seems completely attentive to everyone else. This is even more confusing.

"I thought you liked to... watch?"

Mike glances up at Ryder, smiling shyly. It's incredibly appealing. "I like to watch _other_ people watching. Their reactions, the way it turns them on." He leans in, sliding an arm around Ryder's waist, directing his attention to Brittany's flushed cheeks and parted lips. "See? She's a hundred times more beautiful when she's into what's going on. Not that she's not amazing all the time."

All the skin along Ryder's arm feels extra-sensitive as Mike presses his rib cage against it. _This is it,_ something inside him urges; _your first real chance to kiss another guy. _ He's 95% sure Mike would be into it, even if he and Ryder haven't exchanged more than a couple sentences before. But, as he sits there with the idea, he's equally certain he doesn't want his first kiss to come from Mike, or Finn, or any of the other guys in the room. Judging from the expression on Finn's face, he understands what's going on.

"How did you guys keep this a secret?" Ryder asks.

Finn shakes his head, looking amused. "Seriously? Who would have believed it?"


	2. Jake

**Two: Jake**

The scene in the hotel room turns out pretty much exactly the way Jake assumes it would. That doesn't mean he's not disappointed, but Marley's sadness and embarrassment trumps his disappointment.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"Nah, don't be."

Marley sighs. "But you spent so much money on this room."

Jake could explain that he got a part time job teaching dance, because if there's anything a single parent taught him it's that you lavish someone when you love them. He could explain that basically his only cost was the hotel room, because all her other presents have been bought by Ryder. But the more they talk about money, the longer the discomfort lasts. If he makes a joke, they'll both feel better. So he does. "No, I didn't. I just snagged a key card from the maid's cart and tried every door until one opened."

Her eyes go wide. "Are you serious?"

"No," he admits. Marley laughs and shoves his shoulder. "Come on." He takes her hand. "Can we at least make it back downstairs for another dance?"

She nods and he stands. "Let's go."

Jake leads her towards the door. It's the first time he's been in a hotel room without having luggage, and he can't help but reflexively check that he's got the key card, like he'll be coming back from the swimming pool in twenty minutes. But Marley gives him a frustrated little sigh. "Wait. No. Just - wait. This isn't what I want." She drops his hand, pulling her along, and he watches her in confusion.

"What do you want, then?"

In answer, Marley shoves him against the door and kisses him savagely. Jake can't say that he's never been kissed like this before; he's not sure it's hyperbole to say that he's been kissed in every way there is. But he's definitely never been kissed like this by her. Marley's always been sweet and gentle. Into it, but letting him make the moves.

Now her sigh is soft and satisfied. "Better."

"Uh," he stammers when she pulls away a few inches. "Uh, do you still want to go dance, or-?"

Her eyes glitter as she runs her gaze down his body and back up to his mouth. "Actually, I think I want you to take your shirt off."

Jake does, because you don't argue with a girl when she's like this. He's got no idea what changed in the few short feet between the bed and the doorway, but he's gonna go with it and enjoy. The energy in the room crackles as he makes short work of the buttons on his shirt and tosses it on the desk. Her hands are on his chest in seconds, kissing him hard, and he lets out some kind of helpless noise that makes her groan.

"And now I think you should take your pants off. Then take the condom out of wherever you stashed it. And then we'll see how well you do."

That's when Jake's fears get the better of him. It's a sudden explosive mess in his head, a combination of _we were going to be different_, and _I've never loved the girls I've had sex with, _and especially _Ryder told me she deserves better than this_. It all serves to kill his sex-buzz. It's not that he doesn't want it - god, no, that's not it at all. He just has to figure out how this is different than the way things have always been with other girls before he makes the same old mistakes, all over again.

"I'm gonna take like five minutes in the bathroom, all right?" _Please let her say she understands. _If she doesn't want him to, he'll have to insist, and then it'll get weird and -

"Sure. I'll be waiting. You want to take off my bra when you get back, or are you willing to let me to deal with those frustrating clasps that every teen sex comedy says guys don't understand?"

_Fuck. She's just perfection in five feet six inches._ "I want to touch every bit of you. You decide if that includes your bra, or - not. But I seriously -"

Marley flaps her hand. "Yeah, yeah. Go."

Jake locks the door behind him. He's not sure what she thinks he's doing. Gargling, maybe? But if his breath was bad, hopefully she would have told him earlier, rather than dealing with it for the last forty-five minutes while they made out. Whatever she thinks, what he's actually doing is pulling out his phone and texting Puck. For all that Puck is a shitty role model in a dozen different ways, he's had enough sexual disasters that his sex advice is pretty intelligent.

He's not sure what exactly his problem his, so he just closes his eyes and lets his thumbs go, in the modern age version of the free association writing they used to do in grade school. Jake opens his eyes on a sent **OMG HOW U FUCK SOME1 U LUV?** and thinks it's accurate enough. There's maybe a little stuff mixed in about _what if she's not the only one you love_ - but none of that matters, because Marley's what he has, and he is sure as shit not going to screw that up.

**ur allcaps hurts my eyes**

Okay, that's possibly the most annoying, useless thing Puck has ever said to him. Including when they were road tripping from California back to Lima and Puck couldn't let himself fall asleep, so he just talked about whatever, and Jake got a fifty minute monologue on the various cheat codes of Mario World.

**AWNSER THE Q DICKNUT**

**what? your allcaps is blinding**

If Jake didn't have such pressing business on the other side of the door he'd storm back to the reception floor, find his half brother, and punch him in the eye. Fucking jerkoff.

**answer. the. question. .**

**better. well, sams currently sucking my dick. wanna ask him?**

Jake stumbles and catches himself against the door. _What the fuck._ Working on the assumption that Puck's not joking, this is an entire world of not cool. An uncool world with no cheat codes, so he can't get the fuck out. For one, Sam's dating Brittany, and as far as Jake knows Puck and Kitty came together, which means they're both cheating. Which means that Kitty is going to get even crueler than she normally is, and Brittany's probably going to cry, and Glee's going to be awful.

Two, since when is Puck suddenly bi? Jake knows he's a child of the twenty-first century and his automatic response is supposed to be _I don't care,_ but... he does. He really does. Not because of the actual gay part; Puck can stick his dick in whatever gender he wants. Jake cares because they spent a full week together - two days on the road, three with Puck sleeping on Jake's floor because his Ma got temporarily furious when he suggested she meet 'the other woman' for lunch - and in all that time together, Puck never once thought that was something that Jake might want to know?

Or maybe Puck just has a cheating kink. Jake's heard stories, he's heard literally hundreds of stories, and if they're true the only woman that Puck hasn't enticed into cheating at some point is Shelby Corcoran, his kid's adoptive mom. Maybe Puck's getting off on going behind Kitty's back, and it doesn't matter who it's with, Sam was just the closest person on the dance floor.

On the third hand... it's possible that Puck's straight, and just happens to be having sex with another guy. And if that's true, if that's a thing that people do... maybe Jake could do the same?

Abruptly, things feel a lot less scary. Immediately upon realizing this, Jake also realizes that he's fucking pissed. He picks up his phone and stabs at the keyboard with determination.

**what the fuck r u doing?**

No. Of course he couldn't do the same. He loves Marley. It doesn't matter if he loves anyone else, if he loves a guy but he's straight and other straight men he knows are having gay sex, because bottom line is that would hurt Marley, and he promised Ryder. He _promised_ that he would never hurt her. He wouldn't want to hurt her. But he could maybe see it happening. Except that he promised Ryder, and if that vow is the only thing of seriousness Jake can have with him, then he'll keep it to his dying fucking day.

**dude i can literaly hear u freakin out from 3 rooms away. brother superhearing like a dogwhistle**

Jake snorts. **wut did u expect?**

**206. come in, chillax, go back to marly when ur panties unbunch**

Okay, so obviously Puck just said all this stuff to make his night more interesting. There's no way he'd invite his half brother into a room where he's having sex. Jake twitches. How could he be related to such a jackass?

Jake opens the bathroom door. Marley's on the bed, looking confident in a way she wasn't at all the first time she was on it. Jake _wants_ to want to go over and ravish her, but he's just feeling too much.

"Are you ready now?" she asks, with an air of impatience.

"Mar, I am so ready, I just - I need like five more minutes. I will be right back. I promise. I just. I got a text and I have to -"

Her eyes narrow as she advances on him, and he stumbles backwards a few steps. "Five minutes, or you'll be _paying_ before this zipper comes down."

And yes, that's incredibly, confusingly hot. It's just not quite enough to take him past all this shit in his head. It's like sediment, usually it's on the bottom, bothering no one, and then some asshole comes in with a stick and suddenly all the grit is floating through the water and the only thing Jake can do is wait for it to settle back down. If he spends that time yelling at Puck for being a cockblock, so be it.

But that's not what happens, because when Jake knocks firmly on the door of room 206, the person who answers the door is not Puck, nor Sam, but Brittany. Other than the men's tuxedo jacket hanging loosely off her shoulders, she is completely naked. He has no idea where to look, so he settles on her lapel, which is smudged with lipstick.

"Do you have a top hat?"

That, at least, he can answer. "Uh, no."

"My beautiful unicorn didn't have one either."

Sometimes the best way to handle Brittany is to keep talking to her and pretending that she's not confusing the hell out of you. "Yeah. Sorry about that? Is my brother here? He said I could come by?"

"I really shouldn't let you in without paying me in top hats. Like a troll. Except goats are boring and they poop. A lot."

And sometimes the best way to handle Brittany is to ignore her completely. Jake slips into the room past her, careful to not touch any part of her that would be considered cheating in a court of his peers. That's when his brain fragments. There are people everywhere. People doing things people normally do in private. And two of those people are his brother and Sam.

"Holy shit, you're-" Jake flails a hand at them, while his face flames with embarrassment. Puck is suddenly missing all of the facial hair he'd had going into the wedding, but that's not what's so surprising. It's that there's a guy kneeling between his legs, and that guy is definitely Sam, and Sam's mouth is doing things to Puck's junk that Jake had no idea Sam wanted to do to _any_ guy. Jake spent the first sixteen years of his life as an only child, but he's pretty sure watching that doesn't fit normal sibling etiquette. "Uh... should I be here?"

Puck's face is languid and relaxed as he turns his grin on Jake. "You know, the first time I met Sam, I asked if he could fit balls in his mouth. Turns out he can."

"LIke you didn't know that before tonight," calls Blaine. Jake swivels his attention toward Blaine, but stutters to a halt as he realizes Blaine is straddling Mike's lap, while Kurt is leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, looking completely calm about this. He's not even paying attention to what Blaine is doing, which is involving fingers and both his and Mike's mouths and absolutely zero shirts. Kurt, meanwhile, is talking with Finn, while both he and Brittany are helping Finn out of his tuxedo jacket.

Jake looks around for someone who isn't doing something sexual that he can ask what's going on. Unfortunately no one fits that parameter. He lowers the bar to _isn't actively penetrating someone with something,_ which gives him a few possibilities. Given the choice between Rachel, who's completely nude but not rubbing up against anybody, and Santana, who's still wearing her dress but is keeping Quinn occupied with both hands and one thigh, he chooses the former.

"I'm trying to figure out what's going on here," he says. He wonders if Rachel is going to expect him to join in.

Her answer is cut off by a loud knock, and Brittany peels herself off of Finn to answer it. Jake can only think, half-hysterically, that it must be the hotel staff, citing them for violating fire code. Too many people in one room. Too many naked people in one room. Would people count as more or fewer if they weren't wearing flammable clothing?

But it's Artie, and by the time he's rolled fully into the suite Brittany is sitting on his lap, with his hand on her stomach, stabilizing her. The room is a chorus of hellos, at least from the people whose mouths aren't occupied. But it's Santana who speaks the loudest. "Thought you might not show. Since you were dancing all night with red-dress-bleach-hair-huge-eyebrows."

Artie looks completely serene. "Her name is Betty. No need to be bitchy, of course I wouldn't pass you all up. At the very least, I got my girl-sexin on; I still need my guy-sexin."

"You better be here for more than Puck-dick!" Mercedes shouts from the bedroom, where the door stands open.

Artie throws his arms wide, causing Britt to wobble and clutch at his neck, laughing. "I love all my peeps!" he declares.

"Okay, no, seriously," Jake hisses. "What is going on?"

Rachel smiles. "It's simple, really. As Artie said, we love our peeps. It was Mr Schue's wedding, but it's a reunion for all of us."

"Finn, we might need a second batch later," calls Tina from the other room. "I tried a piece on Ryder's nipple; he's really into it."

Jake's head whips around to stare wildly at the open door. "He - what?"

"Maybe you should check on him." Rachel doesn't appear to be more than a little bit concerned, but Jake isn't spending a lot of time reading her body language. He pushes past naked Rachel and the two girls into the bedroom, wondering desperately who else he was going to find in there besides Tina and Mercedes and -

Ryder. Ryder is on the bed. Ryder is on the bed and his shirt's gone, too, just like Blaine's and Mike's, and Jake can't see Ryder's face because it's obscured by Tina's hand, slowly tracing the contours of his lips with a piece of ice. Ryder's back is arched, his shoulders on the pillow and his hips rolling under the pressure of Mercedes' hand, holding him down.

It takes Jake a few seconds to realize somebody's asking him a question, and a few more seconds to realize he's been standing there, completely fixated on Ryder's writhing body, for something like a minute and a half. Neither Tina nor Mercedes look upset by his presence, but Tina pauses, standing up as she sets the ice down on the table next to the bed. "Hey... Ryder?"

The sound he lets out is somewhere between a groan and a mumble. Jake feels it in his gut, the muscles of his stomach tensing, anticipating Ryder's next noise. Tina chuckles.

"Jake's here."

Ryder's neck snaps up hard enough for Jake to wince in sympathy. Immediately his eyes lock with Jake's, which does nothing to alleviate his anxiety, because now he has to worry about Ryder's reaction to _him_ being there, in addition to Ryder's reaction to _this, _period.

Ryder slowly props himself up on his elbows. "I thought you were with Marley?"

"Yeah, well, I was," agrees Jake, "until my brother invited me into this - I don't even know what to call it."

Mercedes shrugs. "Group marriage without the marriage? Since my grandma needs me to get married in the church, and there's no way they'd allow for this."

Tina side eyes her, arms crossing neatly under her bared breasts. "Cedes, a good half of us don't even believe in the concept of marriage. Including Pilsbury, apparently. Besides, marriage means constant connection. Most of us aren't even in the same time zones."

"Okay, point."

Tina mimes a curtsey, pulling at her skirt of air as she squats slightly.

"So I guess...it's a party then. We're a party. Because we all have busy real lives and obligations, but we get together sometimes and have fun and-"

"Chow down?" Tina offers before bursting into giggles.

"So, an orgy, then?"

Tina turns her glare onto Jake. "That doesn't account for half the amount of feelings we've got. I'm sticking with party."

"That works for me, I guess?" Jake looks quizzically at Ryder, who's remained silent through this discussion. "And... how'd you get here?"

There are an especially awkward few silent moments moments in which Jake watches Ryder consider this question. Finally Jake adds, unhappily, "I mean, maybe you've been part of this all along and you just didn't tell -"

"No!" Ryder reaches out and clutches Jake's arm. Jake stares at it for another long moment. He wonders just how many moments they might have tonight, and the idea distracts him so much he barely hears Ryder answer his question. "No, I ran into Finn in the hallway, because... because I was out there."

Even if it's obviously not the whole story, Jake accepts this answer. But he can't help but clutch onto the twist of wild hope in his gut. Because if it _isn't_ the whole story, there's something else going on here, and maybe - if Ryder is here, in this room, maybe some _certain_ things he thought were beyond possible... might not be?

Mercedes is taking TIna by the hand and gathering her things, including the ice bucket. She holds it up, grinning. "Need a refill. I'll bring it by in a few. We don't hold much with closed doors around here, but you guys are still new; you can have however long you need."

Tina backs out of the room, to the accompaniment of wolf whistles behind her. She gives them a sunny wave as she shut the door. "Bye!"

The room is abruptly quieter, though the sounds of the party still filter through the door. Ryder avoids Jake's gaze for about five seconds before he seems to give that up and sighs.

"You're not freaking out?"

"No," decides Jake, after a minute. "I thought I might be for a little while when I saw Sam and Puck, there, but... no. I'm not."

"I know what you mean." Ryder appears to be completely unselfconscious with his shirt off. It's not as though Jake's never seen Ryder without his shirt; far from it. But the context of this occurrence layers on a whole new awareness. Because Ryder's body is kind of stupidly awesome. Jake's a dancer, after all; he really knows awesome. Ryder clears his throat. "So, uh... what Puck and Sam were doing. That... doesn't gross you out?"

Jake could honestly say he's never watched two guys doing what Sam and Puck were doing, probably rather enthusiastically. _If you don't count porn,_ he adds in his head, but he's not at all sure how to say that without giving away everything he's afraid to explain about himself and why he's in this situation. At least he can answer this question. "No. Doesn't gross me out. Not that I'm super interested in watching my brother get head, but..." He attempts a noncommittal shrug, which hopefully will camouflage his fluttering heartbeat and ragged breathing. This whole night is playing havoc with his ability to stay calm.

Ryder nods slowly. "I can't say that was high on my list of things I really wanted to watch, either. But that room..." He pauses, looking downright perplexed. "That room was full of things I never thought I would want to watch. And, I gotta say, some of them were pretty hot."

"Yeah?" Jake almost whispers it.

"Unexpectedly." His eyes slide from the door back to Jake. "Okay, like, if I don't say this I'm never going to tell you, and after everything I saw tonight, it seems almost stupidly tame by comparison. I ran into Finn in the hallway outside your room. Yours and Marley's."

"What, were you listening at the door?" Jake means it to come out like a joke, definitely not as serious as it sounds, and _absolutely_ not so hopeful. But Ryder just sighs again.

"No. I mean, yeah. Kind of. I don't want you to think it's about me being jealous, because it's not. I don't begrudge you guys what you have, I think it's awesome. Can I...?" He sits up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, and Jake automatically sits next to him, close enough for their knees to bump. He sees Ryder make a little reaching gesture, and grabs his shirt for him, handing it over. "Thanks."

"So you're not jealous?" Actually, watching Ryder with Tina and Mercedes was a little wake-up call. Jake realizes he'd been clenching his teeth to see Ryder on a bed with somebody else, anybody else. "Because you'd be totally justified, if you... have a thing for her."

"I have a thing for her," Ryder agrees. He pauses, takes a breath, and adds, "Not just her."

Jake looks unhappily at the door. "Tina? I think she's single, or as close to that as she can be if she's involved with this party - "

"Not Tina." Ryder's interruption is aggravated, but his cheeks flush as he puts his hand on Jake's knee. Jake's eyes widen. "Not Tina," Ryder repeats, more softly.

"Oh," he whispers, "I - um."

Ryder gives him a tiny smile. "Still not freaking out?"

Jake doesn't have any context for how to handle this, but he knows what his heart's been telling him for weeks, and freaking out is definitely not what it's doing. But he also knows Marley's waiting for him in the other room, and assuming that she doesn't hate his guts by now for ditching her, she's already got dibs on his heart and his body and everything else in this equation.

"No," he says, "not freaking out. But I think Marley would need to give me permission to do anything more than that."

"Oh, fuck," mutters Ryder, blinking. Jake feels Ryder's hand contract on his knee, and he tries not to like it, but he can't quite suppress the gasp that's forced from his mouth. "That's - well, a lot more than I expected from you."

"Yeah, I guess I didn't expect to find you shirtless on the hotel bed being worked over by two half-naked women, either."

Ryder's blush deepens. "It was just, they had this ice, and Tina - and I said I didn't really get it, and she said _you have to try it, _and I said..." He trails off, shaking his head. "I liked it," he finishes helplessly.

"I could see that." Jake's reply comes out low and a little bit rough, and Ryder's shivery, wide-eyed response is enough to mitigate the embarrassment he feels at that. Hesitantly, he puts his hand on top of Ryder's. _I want to use that ice cube on you next, _is what he wants to say, but he settles for, "It looked kind of awesome."

"Yeah, but the thing was, there were a dozen other things I could have done in this room, with a dozen different people. Literally. But I didn't want that. Maybe I could have, if I hadn't - if I didn't have - a thing."

"For Marley," prompts Jake, because the squirmy, breathless feeling in his chest tells him he knows exactly what Ryder is going to say, and he just wants to hear him _say it._

Ryder's eyes close, almost like a wince. "For the two of you."

_He said it. God, he said it._ "Wow."

He opens his eyes again, cautiously. "Wow, not meaning, _get away from me?"_

Jake nudges Ryder's hand until he turns it over, and clasps it in his firmly. No room for ambiguity here. "I'm holding your fucking hand. What do you think?"

Ryder's wide smile takes over his face. "You're... really?"

"Oh, for god's sake," Jake sighs, and reaches over to hook Ryder's head with one hand, pulling him in for a kiss. It's almost perfunctory, but the way Ryder responds, Jake's left tingling and immediately wishing he hadn't started something he can't finish. He has to wiggle his fingers a little to get Ryder to let go the death grip he has on his hand. He decides he's going to need to use words. "Look, being in love with the same girl is just the start. You're my best friend. I trust you. Okay, so I've never done stuff with a guy before, but that doesn't mean I ever totally ruled it out either, and... there are feelings here."

"Feelings?" Ryder appears to be hanging on his every word. It's giving Jake courage, to see him looking at him like that.

"I don't know what they are, but they're there, and they're important. Important enough that I don't want to do stuff like _that -" _He gestured at the room outside. "- with anybody, until I figure it out."

The realization dawns on Ryder's face. "Is that why you're in here instead of with her?"

"Partly. I didn't want to mess things up with Marley. I promised you I wouldn't."

"You promised - _me?"_ Ryder looks flabbergasted.

"Yeah. I didn't want it to be just another lay. Marley's special. So I came here looking for some advice from Puck." He sighs. "Except now I've taken so long, she's probably going to dump me anyway."

Ryder hauls on their joined hands until Jake practically falls into his lap. He lets go of Ryder, startled, and his arms automatically go around Ryder's, and Ryder's hugging him hard. Jake immediately relaxes into it. It feels so fucking good, he can't even express it.

"I'm not going to let that happen," Ryder promises. "Not because of me. She loves you. And you guys deserve to be together."

Jake feels unreasonably choked up by this sentiment, but there in the curve of Ryder's arm, he has a hard time thinking about anything other than _warm and strong and firm._ It's so monumentally different than being held by Marley, and so impossible to equate the two. He tries not to dwell on the idea that maybe, possibly, he doesn't have to. That maybe, possibly, he can have them _both._

It's enough to inspire him to break his own rule again, groaning as he presses his lips to Ryder's. He feels Ryder's hand on his rib cage like a promise. He knows he shouldn't, that he's promised himself to Marley, and yet he finds himself rationalizing it. _If she wants us both, it's not really cheating._ Yeah, he knows it's bullshit, but the taste of Ryder's mouth is making it hard to focus on just how much bullshit it is.

"You," Ryder says, and Jake stops to listen, hovering close beside his jaw. "I really wanted... well, tonight, I had the chance to kiss another guy?"

_Probably several,_ Jake thinks, but he's not going to interrupt to be snide. He nods, trying not to feel unreasonably possessive, eight seconds into this thing with Ryder.

"And I didn't want to," Ryder goes on. "Not because I didn't want to, but... because it wasn't you."

Jake can't help but smile. "God, Ryder. You're just so freaking _sweet._ Talk about two people deserving to be together. _You're _the one who saved Valentine's Day for me and Marley. Without you, we would have been a mess. Even if she doesn't know it yet, she's in love with you, too."

"She is?" His eyes, brown and attentive, are riveted to Jake. Jake licks his lips.

"Yeah," he says, barely above a whisper. "She - she really is."

Ryder's not budging from where his arms are around Jake, and Jake's slowly inching backwards onto the bed until Ryder's head is against his on the pillow. Oh, this is so not _anything_ like getting up and leaving to go back to Marley. It takes Jake another couple minutes of contact with Ryder before he realizes why he's doing it - and then he just feels stupid for not realizing it before. Something about witnessing a 12-some opens a person's mind, he supposes.

"Come with me," he urges. "Back to the room. We need to talk to Marley about this together, all three of us."

"Just- can we just wait one minute? I just want -" Ryder stops begging mid-sentence to kiss him again. "Please. If it doesn't work out, I want - god, Jake, I want -"

Another kiss, and yeah, Jake's willing to concede this. He thinks it could work, he's _willing_ the three of them to work, but if it doesn't... fifteen minutes of making out is better than nothing.


	3. Marley

**Three: Marley**

Marley's known for a while that she likes to feel like she's in control. When you're poor, and everybody outside your group of friends thinks you should crawl in a hole and die, and your own genes are working against you, any bit of control you can wrest from the world is a big deal. It can be sexy, even.

Which is why Marley's _still _sitting on the edge of the bed, bra off, waiting for her boyfriend to come back from wherever he's gone. For five minutes she could have coaxed any reaction out of Jake that she'd wanted. It was heady enough that even forty minutes later, Marley's still not pissed off about how long he's taken to return. She just wants him to come back into the room, so she can make him crawl to the bed. Marley thinks she could make him - that if she demanded it, Jake would literally do that for her.

But they can't do that if he's not here. It's impatience, not anger, that has her mass-texting the current members of Glee, plus Santana and Puck. Santana was her mentor for a bit there, before Sectionals, and Puck is Jake's brother. She has Finn's number too, but if any of the wedding guests have gotten a hotel room, it's Finn and Rachel. He'll be far too busy to be harbouring Jake.

**jake got a text & hasnt come back. anyone see him?**

The knock at the door a minute later has Marley's heartbeat up for a moment. Finally! Except no, it can't be Jake. Jake's got a keycard. She pulls the top half of her magenta dress up and slides the slim straps back into place without bothering to put her bra back on. She'll just tell the random drunk person who mixed up floors to go away, and then she'll send out another text.

Santana's on the other side of the door. She's beautiful in a form-fitting red dress, if a little disheveled. Marley's willing to bet twenty bucks Santana and Quinn found some place, the hotel kitchen or a bathroom or somewhere, to make out. They were progressively handsier in their dancing as the night wore on. Really, it would have been a shame if they hadn't had fun with it.

"Hey, girlie. Long time no mentor!"

Marley is seized in a hug. She decides to just go with it. For all that she's playing at a forceful personality, Santana is no-shit In Charge Of Herself. If Santana wants to give someone a hug, it's really not worth fighting. Santana smells kind of like she tripped into a geyser of perfume, but it's better than the alcohol Marley would have expected she'd smell like.

The bracelets on Santana's left arm clank when she pulls back. "So you're bored, and all alone. Sucks, right? That's why you're coming with me."

Marley isn't necessarily opposed to Santana's plan. If the night isn't going to end in some her-on-top fooling around, and even potential virginity loss, if might as well end with her getting really drunk with Santana and maybe Quinn. She feels around on the floor under the bed with her toes for her shoes. "I guess you got my text, since you knew I was alone. But how did you know where I was?"

"Your boyfriend is underage, he can't rent his own room. It's on Puck's credit card. When it comes to snooping, I'm the snoopiest." She looks mildly superior about this. "And I know you didn't start the night alone."

"Jake's coming back," she insists, grabbing her keycard as Santana takes her arm and hauls her into the hallway. "I can't be gone long; I don't want to miss him."

"Trust me, you won't. He's kind of hard to miss."

This doesn't make any sense, but they're already at the door of room 206, and Santana's digging in her cleavage for her own keycard.

"Is this the Glee party room?"

She smirks at Marley, but it's a nice smirk. "That's _exactly_ what it is. Now, once we get in, I'm gonna give you a short tour. My advice is, keep moving until you see it all. You never know where you'll want to stop."

Marley guesses that makes sense. If the previous generation of Glee has a private party room, there are probably a few clusters of people. No reason to get stuck with Sugar and Tina if she can talk to Puck. He's got a filthy, absolutely hilarious sense of humor.

As soon as they're through the door, it becomes obvious that there are indeed clusters of people. They're just not talking.

Santana bypasses the people in the living room and delivers Marley directly to one of the bedrooms. Marley can hear talking and moaning both, but she doesn't move far.

"Go on. It's cool."

So Marley takes a single step into the room, and sees a trio that defies reason. On the bed are Rachel, and Finn, and - Kurt. And it's not even Rachel and Finn with Kurt watching awkwardly. It's Finn and Kurt, like stepbrother-cest, and Rachel skating her fingers over both of them.

"Don't you think Kurt deserves to hear what you're doing?" Rachel murmurs sweetly.

"Fuckin...fuckin' your hot ass," Finn manages to grunt out. His thrusts are kind of choppy, staccato, if Marley wants to go with a musical metaphor, which seems fitting considering the participants. Kurt's response is somewhat musical, too, and Rachel's delighted laugh provides a nice counterpoint.

Marley steps back, wide eyed. "I don't - I mean, I've _never -_"

But Santana's not stopping. "And in bedroom two are two lamers that want privacy. Who the fuck comes to an orgy for privacy? But that's fine, whatever. Oh, it appears Sam's fingering himself in the shower, getting ready for whoever wants him. I'm guessing it's gonna be Mike. You should check it out."

Santana guides her past Brittany, riding Artie on the couch, the end of a dildo peeking out of her ass. On the other side of the room, Puck is propped against an armchair with Mike cradled between his legs, one hand stroking him lazily. Mike's eyes are riveted to Tina, who's stretched out beside them on her stomach, enthusiastically going down on Mercedes, who doesn't seem to be having too bad a time herself.

Her eyes stray to a couple in the corner. Marley doesn't even recognize Blaine for a moment, because the first part of him she sees is his bare ass in the air. His head is pillowed on his forearms, and he's obviously turned on. She looks away from that quickly enough, because it seems completely unlikely that Blaine would be okay with her staring at his boy parts. And yet, here he is, on his knees for anyone to walk in and see and - oh my god, is that _rope_ around his wrists?

And then she realizes that Santana is beside him, with Quinn one step behind her, and her hand is skating down Blaine's bare back in a long stroke. It comes to rest on his ass, and his hips twitch upwards into her touch.

"You think you need more, Blainers?"

"Please," he begs.

"Woah," slips past Marley's lips before she can stop it. Blaine twists his head to look at her, his face red and splotchy, though whether it's from embarrassment or simply from arousal, it's impossible to know. "What are you doing to him?"

Santana grins. "It's called sexy punishment. See, Blaine here apparently thought it would be a great idea to start the festivities early. Started fooling around with Kurt in the car, as I'm sure you've heard. Everyone who walked through that parking lot knew, and it was a big venue, lots of guests. Blaine knows he deserves this, don't you?"

Blaine nods his head emphatically, and it might very well be the hottest thing Marley's ever seen. The last few months she's felt kind of bad for Blaine, and more than a little creeped out by Tina's intense crush on him, but the way he looks right then, naked on his hands and knees, his ass as red as his face, Marley can't exactly blame her.

"Well, Kurt too," Quinn adds, "but we took care of him before you got here."

Santana kneels besides Blaine, talking like he's not even there. His eyes are barely focused, anyway, but he doesn't seem to be complaining. "Got themselves all turned on. Got us all turned on. Selfish bitches, really, to think that they'd take an opportunity to mess around at the reception when none of the rest of us did."

Quinn runs her hands over Santana's shoulders, smiling. "We're not actually mad. You wouldn't want to see me and San when we're actually mad. But manners are important, right, Marley? Boys need to understand this. It's important to handle boys the right way when they mess up."

"Definitely," Marley breathes, smiling back. Santana's carefully sculpted eyebrows go up, and she looks over her shoulder at Quinn before turning back to Marley.

"What, are you saying you might want a turn?"

The noise that comes out of Blaine's mouth doesn't _sound_ unhappy, but Marley has to be sure. "Does Blaine want that?"

"It's not about what Blaine _wants."_ Santana raises her hand, then brings it down on one cheek with a resounding _smack._ The only one who flinches is Marley. Blaine just moans again. "It's about what he _needs._ And you could dole it out as well as any of the rest of us, I bet. Blaine trusts you."

"Beg her," Quinn says sharply, and Blaine gulps, turning to face Marley again.

"I need it," he says, "I need - oh, please, would you?"

Her immediate, confident response is _yes, yes, I can do that for you._ But she wonders a little. This isn't sex - is it? Her hand on another boy's behind, that seems pretty sexual, especially considering the way Blaine is responding. Even if Blaine is gay, she's straight, and she's never considered relating to a boy this way. And she's with Jake. She hesitates.

"I think I'd better not," she says at last, reluctantly. "But I'm sure that Santana and Quinn will take good care of you."

Blaine turns his hopeful face back to Quinn, who runs a manicured hand through his curls before grabbing them and forcing his head back. At the same time, Santana presses an elbow into the space between his shoulder blades. He cries out, though not apparently in pain, and drops lower onto the floor. Marley feels the throb of response below her navel. Even if she's not participating, watching this is totally doing something to her.

"Okay, did somebody slap somebody else, because we totally heard a -"

Marley's eyes twist away from Blaine, because this voice is as out of place here as she feels. But it's not just Ryder. It's _Jake_ and Ryder. It's _Jake and Ryder,_ and they're standing there together, staring back at her. Ryder's shirt isn't even buttoned.

"You - the two of you? _You_ were the lamers in the bedroom?"

"Hey." It takes Marley a moment to acknowledge there's someone other than Ryder and Jake in the room, but she turns at last to see Mike, closing on them with gentle hands outstretched. "Maybe you missed the announcement. This is a drama-free zone. You guys might need to talk this out, but this isn't the place."

She marshals her inner calm, and nods stiffly back at him. "That makes sense." It would be easy to get sucked into the fear and outrage she's feeling, but she can see that Jake, at least, is feeling it twice as bad as she is, and that gives her enough incentive to step up and be the bigger man. She glances back to the open door of the first bedroom before turning back to the boys. "Finn was calling Kurt's ass hot. I thought it was a compliment, but now I'm wondering if it was meant literally."

"Uh?"

"What do you think, Ryder? If I spanked Jake, would his ass warm up?"

Ryder freezes for a moment, his eyes locked with Jake's, but then he blinks, a smile spreading on his face. "Be my guest," he says, laughing, and gestures graciously.

"What the hell?" Jake sputters, but he's not walking away. If Marley's reading him right, actually, he's having a hard time with motor function right now. She puts a hand on his shoulder, giving him a little push toward the door.

"Yeah, I think we need to address you being gone for so long. Not to mention making out with your best friend. Did you really think you were going to get away with that?" Marley smiles at Santana as she maneuvers a flustered Jake ahead of her. "Thanks for the inspiration. I think I can handle it from here."

Santana smiles back, while Quinn finishes Blaine off with a final _smack._ "Go get 'em, tiger." She jerks her head at Ryder. "What about him?"

Marley realizes Ryder's still standing there, watching them. She doesn't take her hand off Jake, but she holds out her other one to Ryder. "Like we're going to leave him behind."

Ryder brightens, taking one step toward them. "I don't want to be in the way."

"Yes, you do. You _so_ want to be in the way. I need you to tell me about all the ways you want to be _in the way."_ She gives her hand a little exasperated shake. "Come _on."_

It seems to be enough to draw Ryder out of the spell he's under, and he follows readily enough after that, through the door and down the hallway. When he gets to their room, however, he looks like he might be ready to bolt again. Marley isn't sure what tools she's got at her disposal, but there's a familiar one she used earlier with Jake, and that boys have used on her before to get her to calm down. And yet, this isn't an ordinary situation. She looks back and forth between anxious Jake and flighty Ryder, and makes her voice firm. "Jake. Kiss him."

For a moment, she's afraid she made the wrong call. Jake isn't grimacing, but now she might have two freaking-out boys. Then she watches Jake focus on Ryder, and she thinks Jake might see something of what she sees, because he visibly steadies himself before stepping in to put both hands on Ryder's shoulders.

"This okay?" Jake murmurs, his voice so gentle that Marley feels moved to step in closer. She's close enough, in fact, to see the flicker of Ryder's eyes from her to Jake, and his quick nod.

And then - Jake _does. _He moves his hands to Ryder's face, and kisses him. And it's pretty clear from the way they fit together that this isn't the first time he's done it.

Marley has two immediate, intense reactions. The first is blatant lust. It's not just that it's two boys kissing, although God knows that's hot enough. It's that it's Jake, _her_ Jake, and Ryder, _their_ Ryder, and they're so sweet together she can't quite handle it.

The second is a rush of power. Jake did this, because she told him to, immediately, without question. She doesn't remember feeling anything quite like this before, even when the boys she'd made out with let her take control, holding them down and making them do what she wanted them to. She can only assume that again, it's because it's _them,_ Jake and Ryder, and because she gets to be the one in charge of them. Whatever the reason, she's pretty sure it's better than anything she's had ever. When she puts a hand on each of their backs and whispers, "God, yes, just like that," she watches them sink deeper into one another, making sweet, desperate noises, and it gets fifty times hotter.

Jake pulls away, breathing hard. "You want that?"

"Oh my god," Ryder says, at the same time that Marley responds, "I'm pretty sure I'm the one who told you to do it."

Jake laughs, sounding a little amazed. "Wow..." He slumps a little into Ryder's arms. Marley can feel the way Ryder is holding him up. They both sit on the edge of the bed. Ryder's eyes aren't moving off Jake, but Jake's looking at her. "I... you have anything else you want to tell me to do?"

"To Ryder?" Marley considers this for about three seconds. "Or to me? Or to yourself?"

"God," Ryder chokes. She knows enough about how guys are built to know he's pretty turned on. The last thing she wants is for him to have regrets and not get to talk about them before things happen.

"Since we're not actually in the sex-suite, I think we should back off for a second and talk." What Jake does is actually the opposite of backing off. Ryder whimpers a little as he moves his hand to Ryder's waist. "That means you too, Jake!"

Her words, snapped out like that, make him freeze, and Marley gets a little jolt that makes her want to say 'screw it, keep going, we'll totally have sex now'. But she won't. She'll be an adult, and make sure everyone's on the same base before things get too far. If she's gonna rock this in-charge thing, she has to do the responsible bits too, not just the fun bits. Besides, Jake having a visible erection and not doing anything with it because she told him not to is pretty fun in itself.

He watches her for cues, and when she climbs up to sit in the center of the bed, they both swivel to face her, like flowers chasing the sun. She smiles at them, putting a hand on each boy's knee.

"I'm a little confused about how we got here," she says, "but I guess that doesn't matter too much right now, because... well, here we are. And the world's a little... _bigger,_ maybe, than it was a couple hours ago. More things are possible?" She looks meaningfully at the two of them, and they at least have the courtesy to look sheepish. Ryder shifts a little closer to Jake, shrugging.

"For my part, two hours ago I was sulking at the white carpet in the hall. I was absolutely sure I was _never _going to get this. On a bed with you two is so many times better than that, I dunno if there are even math words for it."

"Yeah," Jake interrupts, "but -"

"But?" Ryder asks. There's hurt, and conflict, in his eyes that Marley wants to fix, but she can't. Not until she hears the specifics of Jake's rebuttal.

Jake frowns. "Okay, I'm not saying I was brainwashed into being pro-orgy. I'm not saying that it's inherently bad either. I don't think anybody was being forced into doing something they didn't want to do, and it sure seemed like everyone was having fun. But it was kind of a smack in the face. I definitely felt a little dazed by the sudden group sex. So, are we all just - dazed? Not thinking with the right appendages?"

Marley raises an eyebrow. "You're asking if we do this, are we going to regret it, in the cold light of morning?"

Ryder smirks at her. "That's a Placebo lyric; don't think I didn't pick that up. I made you download them."

"Well, it turned your frown upside down, didn't it?" Marley feels better, if only a little, for the short release of tension. "But seriously, you're wondering if we'll regret doing this?"

"What even_ is_ this? We haven't even said what exactly we think -" Jake makes quotations with his fingers. "- _this_ is."

Marley would like to throw her hands in the air with exasperation, but she won't. Jake's asking a question that's serious to him, no matter how obvious it seems to her. "Well. I think 'this' is the three of us dating. Not me and you and then me and Ryder, and you and me and you and Ryder. Nothing scheduled, like A gets B on Wednesday and alternate Saturdays. The three of us, all together."

Ryder nods emphatically. "That's what I want too."

"And we don't think that's too high a goal?" Jake sounds more than a little tense.

"You didn't think that was too high a goal when it was justifying making out with me half an hour ago."

"Well, I was sex-dazed, and willing to do it regardless, if it was gonna be our one and only." He glances at Marley. "Sorry. But since we're actually talking, not just fooling around, don't you think it's something we should think about?"

"You're worried about it being too hard? Since when is that a good reason not to do something?" Marley tries the Santana hair-toss, but it just makes her feel stupid. "You made an epic play for me, even though I took a million years to come around. I don't see any point in taking another million years for this."

Ryder leans in closer, patting Jake's ankle. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

Jake runs his palms along the thighs of his dress pants. "Okay. So provided that this actually does -"

"Work?"

"I was gonna say _seem like a good idea when we're not still dazed from the other room,_ but 'work' is good too. So, provided that, I think we should figure out what we'd want from a threesome relationship." He watches their faces for approval before going on. "Because, like, everyone grows up learning from books and tv and stuff how give and take works between two people? But there aren't really any prime time sitcoms about how to make a threesome work. But if each of us says one thing that's like, non-negotiable, maybe we can figure out where to go from there."

Marley throws hers out first. It's easy, she's always wanted it. "Control. Um. Not all the time? I just really want it, sometimes. Bedroom times, mostly, I guess."

"I'm okay with that," Ryder agrees, taking her hand.

She guesses Jake is blushing, though the light is insufficient to tell. "Uh... yeah. Me too."

Marley's not exactly surprised, but it's enough that they all said yes to her one thing without asking for clarification. She squeezes Ryder's hand. "How about you?"

"Honesty," Ryder says.

"No qualifiers?" Jake asks. "That's kind of a big thing. Considering we were the ones cheating a few minutes ago."

Ryder bristles. "So's control! You didn't see me climbing all over Marley."

"You're right. Sorry. So you want us to be honest, even if the truth hurts."

"Dude, the truth pretty much always hurts. Doesn't mean you shouldn't say it." He hesitates, then adds, "Which reminds me, I actually have to tell you guys a thing. But I don't want to derail this, so we'll just talk about it later."

"Verbal post it note," Jake says, nodding, and as though in apology, slips his arms around Ryder in a casual embrace. It's so perfect, Marley has to stop and admire them. "Ryder wants to tell us a thing. Check."

Marley moves in to kiss Jake over Ryder's shoulder. "So what's yours, then? What's your one thing?"

He takes a deep breath. "Love. If we're doing this, it has to be about love. Not because we just can't find better at McKinley, or because it's really hot, or because it'll make us feel secretly indie and badass. I love you, Marley, and you're my girlfriend, so that's fine. And, uh... I love you, Ryder, which I made work as a best friend thing. And I'm pretty damn sure you guys love me. But if that changes..." Jake shakes his head. "I've fucked around too much. I want to be with people I _love._"

Ryder's face is crimson by now, but that doesn't stop him from smiling from ear to ear. "I can definitely work with that."

Jake lets the breath out, clearly relieved. "Yeah? Good."

"So now that we've got that covered," Ryder continues hopefully, "do you think you can honestly - _lovingly,_ even - let Marley control the shit out of you? Preferably without pants?"

Marley is so pleased to see Jake freeze again. "Um -"

She shifts so she's kneeling behind him, reaching her hands around to unzip his fly. "You're out of options, here, Mr. Puckerman. Your girlfriend agrees with... your boyfriend."

The gasp could be a reaction to her words, or to her hand down his pants, or possibly to Ryder's enthusiastic presence in front of Jake, clearly doing his best to live up to the boyfriend label. She's even more happy to see he doesn't shy away from skin, which honestly she wouldn't have expected of him anyway, and she pauses in undressing Jake to move her hands to Ryder's two remaining shirt buttons. Jake's hands come up to push the shirt off Ryder's shoulders, but she slaps them away, capturing them in front of him while Ryder takes off his own pants.

"You get to do what I say," she says into his ear, "and that's about it, okay?"

His breathing accelerates, and before he can even respond, she kisses his cheek and releases his hands, giving him a gentle shove onto his knees on the bed. "Leg up. The other one. There you go. Ryder, can you get his underwear?"

It's more a test for Ryder than anything, but he's just as quick to respond to her commands as Jake is, although he's not quite as dazed about the whole thing. That's fine with her. She doesn't need to have him under her spell for him to be appropriately obedient. And with Jake, naked and on all fours in the middle of the bed, looking ready to go along with pretty much anything they require of him, she can't say she's ever been happier.

"Wait right there," she said, touching Jake on his back. Then she reaches up and takes Ryder's face in both hands and kisses him. She's made sure to be in a place where Jake can _almost_ see what's happening, but not quite. Judging by the way he's squirming, the noises they're making have got to be driving him crazy.

Ryder has a little of the dazed in his expression when she's done with him. He actually reaches for more before she puts a hand in the center of his chest and says, very clearly, "You and Jake, now."

Ryder scrambles to get in a position to be able to kiss Jake while he's there on his hands and knees, but he manages it, reclining on his side with his shoulder tucked underneath. They're just getting into it when she lines up her hand the way she saw Quinn do it, takes a steadying breath, and brings it down on Jake's bare bottom.

"_Ohfuck,"_ she hears from Jake, and Ryder's response, while less verbal, is just as immediate. She smiles, feeling so lucky and absurdly pleased with herself, and does it again on the other cheek. Apparently _as hard as she can_ isn't hard enough to cause a problem for Jake. She wonders if she might start lifting weights. In the meantime, though, she's here to deliver this spanking, and she can already tell it's going to be a long one. She's going to need to improve the situation for Jake, or things will be over before they begin, and as long as she's in control, that's _not_ going to happen.

"Ryder," she calls, trying to balance imperious with kind. "Do you think you can manage to get underneath him? On your back, so he can sort of rest on you? I think he might want something to... rub up against, while I do this."

The whine that comes out of Jake's mouth could be Blaine's, it sounds so familiar. Ryder's face is alight with concentration as he slides along the slippery hotel bedspread to fit beneath Jake's body. They sigh in unison as their bodies align with one another. Jake gives one experimental thrust against what she can only presume is Ryder's thigh, and Marley slaps him again. He jumps.

"I didn't say you _could,"_ she says. "I just said you might _want_ to."

"I bet she wants you to beg her," Ryder adds. She glances down in surprise at his face, barely visible over Jake's shoulder, as he disappears further down beneath Jake. She can hear the grin in his voice. "I don't think this is exactly my thing, Mar, but seeing you get your thing? Super hot. Not to mention being up close and personal."

"I'm hoping you'll be able to feel it through his body," she says, delivering smacks three, four and five in quick succession. Ryder pauses along the way to enjoy all three of them, but it's not until the last moment when he's fully underneath Jake that he lets out a groan. She slips a hand between their bodies, feeling which parts are connecting, and smiles approval. "Ah... yes, that's what I was going for."

Marley can't do much to increase the strength of each blow, and her arm is getting tired. She can speed them up, though, and when she changes the angle of her hand, her fingers nudge Jake's ass in such a way that she has a suspicion she's giving him ideas. They seem to be pretty hot to Ryder, too, who's making plenty of happy noises on his back, beneath the pressure of Jake's quivering hips.

"You want something?" she asks, running her hand over the red, raw outlines of her fingers on Jake's bottom. He hisses, and she raises her hand once more. "What was that?"

"Oh," moans Jake, "I - that's so good, and -"

This time she doesn't restrain her hand when she swats him, and Jake cries out loudly. It can't be that hard, but maybe Ryder's doing something she can't see.

"Tell him what you want, right now," she orders, "or I'm taking charge. And you might not like what I pick for you."

It occurs to Marley that it's not exactly clear to whom she's giving these directions, but apparently it doesn't much matter. She watches them clutch at one another with bated breath, stroking Jake's thighs, then crossing over to Ryder's, back and forth. She doesn't even reprimand Jake for losing his posture, dropping down from his knees and tangling up in Ryder's legs, because now it's clearly so much less about control and so much more about love. _Time for the honesty,_ she thinks, and stretches out beside them, propping up on one elbow.

"It's okay," Ryder murmurs, nuzzling Jake's jaw. It's so damn sweet, watching them reassure each other, but Marley can tell she's going to get impatient with their waffling.

"It's a first time for all of us. Right?" She waits as they reply with nods, turning to face her. "So let's not make it more complicated than it needs to be. We're going to do this again."

"Oh -" Jake looks right on the edge of overwhelmed by this idea, and she says it again, more firmly this time.

"We're _going_ to do this again, and so we don't have to worry about what we're _not_ doing tonight." She gives Ryder a pointed stare until it becomes clear that he's not going to get it. "Ryder. He's freaking out."

"Oh, uh - yeah." Ryder captures Jake's mouth again. The way he's kissing Jake, it's almost like they're Marley's lips on Ryder's body, doing her work for her. This leaves her real lips free to whisper in Jake's ear, watching him shudder and thrust helplessly against Ryder.

"You don't have to worry about me, okay? I'm getting exactly what I want, right now. That thing we were going to do tonight? It's not such a big deal, when you look at everything we're trying, here. So right now, this is about you, and what you want. Are you going to let Ryder know what that is, or do I have to guess?"

He's still not talking, even between kisses. Marley can see, from his heavy lids and rhythmic breathing, that he's pretty far gone. She strokes her hand down his back to the curve of his perfect ass, and when she squeezes it, he makes a tense noise of wanting, pressing into Ryder. Ryder's clenching his teeth, gripping Jake's back with all ten of his fingers, hard enough to leave an imprint.

"This is really hot, Mar," he says, panting. "I mean... _really _hot. I don't think I'm gonna..."

"It's okay for you, too," she assures him. "You can... whenever you want. I don't mean that like I don't care, but I don't want you to worry about it. Like I said, we'll do this again." She takes a moment to tuck her face in between them and kiss first Ryder, then Jake, then the two of them together in a wet, confusing jumble. It's amazing.

But as their pace slowly picks up and their motions become more erratic, Marley feels an increasing impulse to be on top of their pile - literally. She reaches around to unzip her dress and sheds it onto the floor, keeping them in her sights, and when she returns to the bed, she kneels behind Jake once more. Only this time, her hands aren't spanking him, but firmly spreading his legs, reaching between them to touch both boys at once. She hears them hiss and whine. It's _beyond_ amazing, and Marley pauses in her exploration to rub up against Jake's outstretched thigh. She feels Ryder's hand move from Jake's back to cup her breast.

"So beautiful," he says, then gasps at the pressure of both their bodies on top of him.

Marley smiles. It's not something she's going to argue about right now, who's most beautiful, but she's absolutely sure among the three of them, she'd come in dead last. Ryder's dreamy eyes are too clouded with lust to be seeing clearly, and that's really okay. All that matters is that this, taking what she wants, seems to be working just fine for both of them. It feels almost too selfish, but she reminds herself that they're not complaining.

"Jake," she said, sharp enough so he can't help but hear her. "Tell me if you don't like this." And she lets her hand drift between the curves of his ass to rest on the taut muscle between his legs.

She feels the tightening before she hears his moan, but either way, it doesn't seem like a complaint. Right on the heels of that comes a powerful rush of control, and she thrusts forward, rocking against him with her hips and her hand. She doesn't force it, because even though this is _really_ foreign territory for her, she knows enough about how bodies work to be certain she's not going anywhere inside either of them, not without some kind of lubrication. Just the gentle pressure of her fingers, though, seems to be enough to kick things between Jake and Ryder up another notch. She feels Jake's body tense.

"That's it, baby," she says, smiling, as he cries out, "Fuck - Ryder?"

"Right there," Ryder tells him, quick and desperate, "like that, oh, _god,_ oh -"

Ryder's right, it's _so_ hot, and Marley's never seen porn or watched anything more intense than a rated-R movie, but if it's anything like this, she can see _exactly_ why people would do it. Watching two people get each other off, the desperate push and pull and mounting tension, it's enough to take her out of herself far enough that she's lost, grinding wet circles on Jake's ass until she comes, strong and silent.

When she opens her eyes, she sees Ryder watching her with something like awe. "Wow."

He's relaxed now, and whatever Jake was doing against his hip seemed to work for both of them. She shifts Jake off onto his back, straddling him and kissing him gently, waiting for him to come out of it enough to kiss her back. He does, although it takes a while, and Ryder's right there with them. She'd been worried one of them might feel left out, afterwards, but it's nothing like that. It's like all the skin, all the touching, has brought them all closer together, close enough that there's no way they can feel separate anymore.

"I think we need to thank somebody," are Jake's first words. His eyes are still closed, but he's smiling. "I'm just trying to figure out who."


	4. Tina

**Four: Tina**

Three phones go off at once. Tina knows it's not hers; her ringtone is _Bad Romance_. It's not Artie's either; his is some shitty rap song.

They ring a second time, obnoxiously loud in the dim room, lit only by the pre-dawn sky outside of open curtains. Not all of them are puppy-piled across the twenty or so sleeping bags they managed to bring between them. Finn and Brittany are having a bath together; she can tell from the harmonious rendition of "Rubber Duckie" she hears lilting from the bathroom. But enough of them are dozing or actually asleep that those who own the phones should be scrambling and apologising.

"No seriously, is someone going to get those?" Tina grumbles. She's always been a light sleeper, and each ring is making her more wide awake.

"Sorry," Finn whisper-shouts from the bathroom. "All the towels are sopping wet... Sam."

"My phone's in my purse. Anyone see a crimson purse?"

"Could whoever's closest to Puck pinch his nose? The Lenny Kravitz Klezmer-rock is definitely his."

Five minutes later everything's gone to voicemail, and Tina's on her back, staring at the ceiling. She would laugh, if she wasn't so tired. Her lovers are incompetent, down to the last one.

"That was weird," Puck says, staring at his phone. "That was mini-Puck. All he said was thanks."

Santana hums her agreement. "Marley said thanks too."

Finn's got a blanket poorly tied around him like a toga. It slips when he nods. "Ryder. And yeah, same thing."

Tina sighs. "Great. You guys got the New New Directions to hook up. Rachel will hand out gold stars in the morning over breakfast shakes. Can everyone shut up so I can go to sleep now?"

A few of them laugh, but it quiets down again. All but Blaine, who's snuggling up to her, one leg thrown casually over hers. "You're happy it's worked out for them," he whispers, "and you know it."

"Yeah," she whispers back, nestling in a little closer. Everyone deserves love, even if it's complicated.


End file.
